Total pages in book: 178
Estimated words: 170884 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 854(@200wpm)___ 684(@250wpm)___ 570(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 170884 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 854(@200wpm)___ 684(@250wpm)___ 570(@300wpm)
We weren’t dealing with just anyone here. I’d taught Ling, and I’d taught her well. This wasn’t going to end until one of us was in a casket, and she now had nothing to live for.
I was fucking with a person who had nothing left to lose.
That made her a dicey adversary.
“I’ve talked Ling off of a lot of ledges before.” I looked back out into the yard. “Maybe I can talk her off this one too.”
Unfortunately, I didn’t actually believe that.
Neither did Lexi.
And when she looked at me the way she was now, worried and tense, I felt the need to be real with her, even though I probably shouldn’t have. But I meant it when I said I didn’t want secrets between us. “She doesn’t have a weakness, baby.”
No hesitation. “Sure she does. We all do.”
“She’s more snake than person, Lex.” My posture stiff, I added an irritated, “Full of a poison that I put there. Ling is a monster of my own creation. She’s barely human, and I nurtured the animalistic side of her. I fed it and watched it grow and did that shit happily because, at the time, I could use that part of her. And what happens as a result of that—” I blew out a breath. “—is my own fault.”
My woman laid it out, no holds barred. “I know you’re worried. I’m worried too. But you don’t need to because I’ll protect you.” The words were whisper soft.
A small snuffle escaped me, and when I turned to my wife, I caught her expression and my smile waned.
She was serious.
Dead serious.
My expression stone-faced, I uttered a rough, “Think I spent six fuckin’ years away from you for you to go and risk your life for me?” I shook my head slowly. She needed to heed my hard words. “Not happening.”
I saw the exact moment she got me. Her face fell and her pretty pink lips parted slightly as she swallowed hard. The term of endearment trembled. “I love you.”
“Don’t do that.” I clicked my tongue in annoyance, my spine stiffening.
“What?”
“Don’t...” It hurt to say it. My voice quieted, “Don’t say goodbye. Not now.” A solid pause. “Not yet.”
Yes, Ling was leaving a trail of bodies behind her, but as my woman moved slowly, resting her forehead on my shoulder, her thick brown hair hanging in waves as she hugged my arm tightly as though I were already dead, I decided I wouldn’t be one of them.
***
Molly
It was stupid to say, “Don’t stress,” to somebody who was very clearly stressed, so I followed up softly with, “I won’t let anything happen to him.”
Lexi smiled tiredly as she kept her eye on the little monster eating toast at the dining table and keeping conversation with a bunch of contract killers. “I know you won’t.”
Her certainty in me lifted me to a higher power, had me leveling up.
So when it was time to head off, I took my little dude by the hand and walked him to the car with a confidence that surpassed me. We waved from the driveway and I took off down the street, peering back at him through the rearview mirror. “Hey, bud,” I started. “I know it’s a little crowded at home these days, but soon, everything will be back to normal, okay?”
A.J. examined me with wisdom beyond his years. “When the bad lady is gone?”
This child. Jesus. The intensity he exuded was completely unnatural for a boy his age, yet coming from him, it was expected.
“When the bad lady is gone,” I clarified.
We drove on, and just before we reached the school, his little voice sounded. “Molly?”
“That’s my name. Don’t wear it out.” I winked in the mirror then smiled, trying to ease the tension radiating from him.
His soft brown eyes widened, and he pointed towards the road wearing an expression of pure terror. “Look out.”
I didn’t see the black Mercedes Kompressor run the stop sign, but as I hit the brakes and spun the steering wheel to avoid the impending collision, my head throbbed and I gritted my teeth as the front end of Big Red screeched to a stop on the footpath without being hit. A cloud of smoke covered the car and the smell of burnt rubber had my nose bunching.
My heart beat out of my chest. “Oh my God,” I panted as my hands shook.
“Molly?” the little frightened voice said quietly.
Without a moment’s hesitation, I swallowed hard and pulled out my phone, hitting the panic button Happy had installed on it then undid my seatbelt and knelt on the front seat to look back at my little monster. His silent cries made my chest ache. “Are you okay, buddy?” I looked him over. He didn’t look hurt, just shaken, and when he nodded like the trooper I knew him to be, my body slumped and I let out a relieved sigh. “Oh, buddy. I’m so sorry.”